Player Dossier

2017-2019

Hawai'i

Cole McDonald

QB • 6'4" • 220 lbs • La Mirada, CA, USA

Balanced quarterback profileVolume operator

Cole McDonald is a balanced quarterback profile with 27.7 usage in the latest tracked season.

Usage / Role

4%

Rotational offensive role

lowfeatured

Impact Production

11

Developing production for a quarterback

lowelite

Reliability

0

Sporadic game-to-game production

lowhigh

Star Power

26

Limited ceiling signals so far

limitedstar

Career Arc

Value trend by season

Best season by Season Value: 2018 Postseason · Hawai'i

1718181919

Snapshot

Career Teams
1
Unique Seasons
3
Program Path
Hawai'i
Peak Game
Peak game by takeover score: Colorado State

Player Story

Cole McDonald built his college career from 2017 through 2019 as a quarterback from La Mirada, CA wearing No. 13, spending time with Hawai'i. The clearest part of Cole McDonald's career was his passing role: 8,035...

Read the story
2★

Recruit Profile

Class 2016 · Rating 0.7926

Sonora · La Habra, CA

Committed To
Hawai'i
Commit Date
Jan 1, 2016

NFL Draft

Draft Year
2020
Selection
Round 7 · Pick 10
Overall
No. 224
NFL Team
Tennessee Titans

Cole McDonald, QB. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2018 Postseason · Hawai'i. Cole McDonald is a balanced quarterback profile with 27.7 usage in the latest tracked season.

Stat Footprint

Career production snapshot

Total offense
8,896
Passing yards
8,035
Rushing yards
861
Touchdowns
82

Quick Answers

Cole McDonald quick answers

Latest team and position
Hawai'i · QB
Career Total Offense
8,896
Tracked sample
3 unique seasons · 5 entries · 33 games
Best season
2018 Postseason · Hawai'i
Top game
Colorado State
Recruit profile
2-star · Sonora · Hawai'i
High school pipeline
Sonora · 2 FBS recruits · 1 drafted player
NFL Draft
2020 · Round 7 · Pick 10 · Tennessee Titans
Latest roster
No. 13 · Junior
2019 Total offense rank
4,515 total offense · QB 4th (top 2%) · Mountain West 1st (top 1%) · National 4th (top 1%)

Season Ledger

Crawlable season-by-season stats

SeasonTeamGamesTotal OffensePass YdsRush YdsTDOverall
2017 Regular SeasonHawai'i616022138226.7
2018 PostseasonHawai'i136885-17179.5
2018 Regular SeasonHawai'i134,1533,7903633979.5
2019 PostseasonHawai'i14483493-10575.7
2019 Regular SeasonHawai'i144,0323,6453873575.7

Related Context

Cole McDonald played QB for Hawai'i. Across 3 tracked seasons, Cole McDonald recorded 8,035 passing yards, 861 rushing yards, and 82 touchdowns. His top tracked season came in 2018 with Hawai'i.

Player insights

Lead takeaway

Best season by value score: 2018 Postseason

Hawai'i paired 4,221 primary output with 60.4 efficiency.

Supporting note

2017 Regular Season role shape

pass-led usage with 59.8 efficiency.

Supporting note

Career value stayed steady

2019 Regular Season tracked close to the prior stop by season value score.

Supporting note

Peak game by takeover score: UCLA

Loss with balanced pass-rush production and strong creator value. It landed in the 100th percentile of the selected season.

Analysis workspace

Season Workbench

Filter the strongest season sample, inspect game-level shape, and then drop into the full log without losing the story of the year.

Season Explorer

Understand the selected season before dropping into the full game log.

2017 Regular Season · Hawai'i

Games

6

Primary Metric / G

26.7

Efficiency

59.8

Usage

9.6

Consistency

22.4

Best Game by takeover score

UCLA

Hover a point or expand a game row to keep the active game context visible here.

Active game

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Game-by-Game Trend

Follow how the selected stat changes from one game to the next. Spikes mark standout outings, while dips show quieter weeks.

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Chronological game order.

Game by game trend chart. Western Carolina: 0. UCLA: 75. Wyoming: 14. San José State: 4. UNLV: 4. Utah State: 63

Volume vs Efficiency

Each dot is a game. Farther right means the player carried more of the workload, and higher means they were more efficient with those chances.

Low volumeHigh quality

High volumeHigh quality

Low volumeLower quality

High volumeLower quality

Volume on the x-axis, quality on the y-axis.

Volume versus efficiency scatter chart. Western Carolina: 3 by 44.4. UCLA: 3 by 100. Wyoming: 4 by 35. San José State: 1 by 77.8. UNLV: 1 by 40. Utah State: 13 by 61.6

Split Comparison

Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.

Wins2 · Games = 2 · -37 vs Losses
Losses39 · Games = 4 · +37 vs Wins

Game Log

Dense stat lines with inline explanations and season-linked highlights.

6 games

Featured metric

Total Offense

Top game by takeover score

UCLA

Best efficiency game

100 vs UCLA

Result
Sat 11/18@ Utah StateL 0-38351860.00061.68455.60014
Sat 11/4@ UNLVL 23-314014404
Sun 10/15vs San José StateW 37-26114100.01077.8
Sun 9/24@ WyomingL 21-28354143.50013
Sat 9/9@ UCLADual-threatL 23-5610037525158
Sun 9/3vs Western CarolinaW 41-1813033.30044.4

Player Story

Cole McDonald story

Cole McDonald built his college career from 2017 through 2019 as a quarterback from La Mirada, CA wearing No. 13, spending time with Hawai'i. The clearest part of Cole McDonald's career was his passing role: 8,035 passing yards, 70 touchdown passes, 1,004 attempts, and 861 rushing yards across 33 career games in the available record. His largest box-score season came in 2019 with Hawai'i. Those numbers show where he fit, how often the ball or action found him, and how his role developed over time.

Quarterback careers are usually judged first by volume, efficiency, and scoring chances. His career also includes 861 rushing yards, giving the story more than a single-category snapshot. With 33 career games in the available record, his career has enough shape to show both opportunity and production across Hawai'i.

The arc is straightforward: Cole McDonald moved through the depth chart, found a larger role, and turned that opportunity into production that can be understood through standard football numbers.

Career Arc

Track team changes, role shifts, and season-to-season movement.

  1. 1

    Hawai'i

    2017-2019

    Opening stop

Season Value Progression

20172018201820192019
SeasonTeamPrimaryEfficiencyUsageDelta
2017 Regular SeasonHawai'i16059.89.6
2018 PostseasonHawai'i4,22160.436.14,061
2018 Regular SeasonHawai'i4,22160.436.10
2019 PostseasonHawai'i4,51564.127.7294
2019 Regular SeasonHawai'i4,51564.127.70

Signature Performances

Top Games

#1 Featured game

@ Colorado State

Week 1 · W 43-34 · Conference game

Win with balanced pass-rush production and strong creator value.

514

Total Offense

88.3 takeover

514 total offense with 84.6 efficiency.

#2

vs Air Force

Week 8 · L 26-56 · Conference game

445

Total Offense

86 takeover

Loss with 445 yards of offense and 65.9 efficiency.

445 total offense with 65.9 efficiency.

#3

@ BYU

Week 1 · W 38-34 · Postseason

483

Total Offense

85.5 takeover

Win with 483 yards of offense and 62.5 efficiency.

483 total offense with 62.5 efficiency.

#4

vs Oregon State

Week 2 · W 31-28

440

Total Offense

83.1 takeover

Win with 440 yards of offense and 58.3 efficiency.

440 total offense with 58.3 efficiency.

#5

@ Army

Week 3 · L 21-28

340

Total Offense

78.5 takeover

Loss with 340 yards of offense and 69.4 efficiency.

340 total offense with 69.4 efficiency.

Top Seasons

#1 Season by Season Value

2018 Postseason · Hawai'i

4,221 primary output · 60.4 efficiency · 36.1 usage

79.5

#2

2018 Regular Season · Hawai'i

79.5

4,221 primary · 60.4 efficiency · 36.1 usage

#3

2019 Postseason · Hawai'i

75.7

4,515 primary · 64.1 efficiency · 27.7 usage

Milestones

18

250+ passing yards

16

300+ total offense

16

3+ TD games

19

Above avg efficiency